Preparing for VR : Discarding legacy control: Crysis 3 at 5120 1600 with independent Cinemizer OLED headtracking and LEAP motion

For VR gaming to enter into being  YOU have to become the controller:nothing in your hands but your hands, nothing controlling the game but you : so how do we step into the game ..or should I say how do you step into a game you want to play ..right now..?

And so I continue to experiment with VR leaning control in Crysis 3 at the extreme resolution of 5120 by 1600. In this play session I have discarded keyboards, mice, joypads only playing with VR leaning control.  I have two control inputs working independently and doing different duties..Using the Zeiss headtracker for FOV and LEAP motion mapped in game actions using a laptop,Cronus and Bullseye that is connected to my gaming rig. 

Put your hmd of choice on,awesome, you are connected to your display and sound like never before. Then you realize, you cannot see your controller anymore .... 

HMDS like the Cinemizer OLED and smd ST1080 will let you look down to a keyboard or let you figure out where you dropped your joypad.. and pick it up to get back into gaming .. but the act of doing so, even looking down to get a bearing on the WSAD keys or a Function key on a traditional keyboard starts to degrade the whole VR leaning gaming experience. And you yearn for more natural control .. and no I do not mean Krazy Kinect or Wild Wild Wii gestures .. The thing is ..we are already there .. almost...

Most video game input is based on abstract translation of real movements, which of course shatters the illusion you are in a VR world .. Pulling off a PPK or Hadouken combo on a joypad that you see translated into 3D on your hmd is not the same as throwing those punches, or moving your hands and arms in the classic Hadouken Ryu or Ken pose and unleashing the move literally translating your real world movements into real VR in game movements. 

Similarly waving wands and motion controllers ,again that you physically have to hold causes further disconnect ..so you want to touch that grass in Crysis 3.. please push your motion controller in direction x or y... is not as cool as just raise your hand and do it ... and wait till you get tangled in those wires ...or batteries conk out ... 

The difference with hmd or VR leaning gaming is that you will expect to be able to do that, coming up with any number of points or VR control hooks as I like to call them as you play.

This is a work (play?) in progress to look for solutions, so I am not quite there yet , but all the pieces are there for us to put together . In 2013 there is no reason why you cannot game just the like the kid from GAMER  .....so let's make a Prophet our finger puppet:

I found using the LEAP the best solution for moving forward was either the thumb pinch, or mapping a downward finger movement to a backward or down mouse movement to a Bullseye  left analogue stick "up" action. With Dangermouse and Bullseye this works excellently. 

And I found using a wired 360 pad to boot the Crounus led to smooth movement , setting the dead zone to a rectangle also helped. Now when I move my finger to the right Prophet moves smoothly.. 

As the Zeiss Headtracker is connected directly to my gaming machine , the head tracking now works independently .. Crysis 3 sees two separate distinct controllers . The headtracker controlling your FOV and the LEAP used to control ingame movement. 

It will be very interesting to measure any difference between direct use of the LEAP with the gaming rig I am using and this Cronus bridge method. Theoretically I am using an i7 laptop to solely process VR input, that input is then taking control of my gaming rig . 

The immediate benefit is I can do something very simply that many LEAP devs are working on  in code , i.e. replacing WSAD and joypads in FPS games 

It also takes seconds to remap mouse and LEAP actions with Bullseye ..no coding required. So if you prefer to move with the Zeiss headtracker ..say by nodding forward  or looking left to move left .. connect the headtracker to the Cronus laptop map it in seconds to move forward when you mouse down or up and in seconds you have forward motion control using the headtracker.  Connect the LEAP to the gaming rig directly , use Dangermouse and you have FOV control , and firing (if you want to live dangerously) with LEAP finger control .. and use both together ... 

Either way both VR leaning input mechanisms work in tandem , at extreme resolutions without slow down. 

I am looking forward to attempting to find solutions to offload the latency in the Rift . 

Note the headtracker is how they say wickedly sensitive, wearing it gives you silky smooth motion, holding it, it's like it picks up every tremor and pulse in your hand .. In game you can hold aim steady or focus on a blade of grass ( yes I have too much time ) . It snaps on under a pair of shades quite easily .. and I often use it without the Cinemizer OLED hmd altogether 

The following video shows how I can move an FOV of 5120 by 1600 in Crysis 3 , wearing the Cinemizer OLED headtracker, head bobbing is left on as I want to see how the headtracker copes with it : 

Note  how I am able to use the headtracker to use the visor to highlight enemies. All this takes minimum effort. you literally look for them through the blades of tall grass, as opposed to using a legacy method with a joypad or mouse drag ...discarding an abstract legacy controller movement that simply feels like it allows you get further in a game .. that you almost complete with muscle memory ... Using the Cinemizer OLED headtracker on the other hand  makes you feel you are there mimicking real world actions that you would do as Prophet ..in this case peering through tall grass,letting you if not step into the game at least look into the game world.. this is VR leaning control ..

I will continue to add VR control layers and try different LEAP solutions,until I can complete this level and this game without resorting to non VR control keyboards ,mice or joypads ...on the portable Cinemizer OLED and SMD ST1080 displays in ghost free OLED and LCOS panel 3D.

I have much more coming up since rejigging my now ancient gaming rig and with the arrival of next gen motion control like the Zeiss headtracker and LEAP ,with portable OLED and LCOS hmds that can handle 1080p resolutions,  everything is coming together to change the way we game, oh and as you can see it does not need to be  locked to one device, or to your gaming rig or to one hmd ..or one VR leaning controller option and this evolution in how we can game is not some distant hypothetical prospect or prophesy, or something being semi demoed on prototype hardware in a lab on borrowed hardware.. 

it's right here ...right now...



more to follow ......@ thegameveda  .. 

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